Baseball rituals have come and gone, and some that persist are so ingrained in the sport that fans don’t even think about them. Woodstock’s Jim Riley, 74, a former president of the Society for American Baseball Research, uncovers some of the sport’s lost traditions and current vestiges.
I grew up playing sandlot baseball. When we chose up sides, one captain threw a bat to the other, who caught it with one hand. From where his grip landed, the first captain put his grip right above. They went back and forth like that until reaching the end of the bat. The person who had the final grip, “the upper hand,” got to choose first.
A minor-league team played in my hometown of Elizabethton, Tenn. I was a batboy in an adjacent softball field and would peep through the outfield fence. When the game reached the seventh inning, everyone was allowed in for free.
Another tradition was leaving the gloves on the field between innings in case someone needed one. We would toss them near our positions. I often used someone else’s because mine was really raggedy. Even major-leaguers did this.
Still today, players going on or off the field do not step on the foul lines or the mound. Pitchers are very particular about their mounds and manicure it to get it just so.
Before professional baseball began with the first salaried team in 1869, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, fans would pass the hat and chip in money to reward a player for an exceptional game or play. Baseball was a gentleman’s game. A rowdy guy who could play was called an “overnight gentleman.”
Knocking down batters has always been around. If a guy shows off after a home run, the next at-bat, he’ll be in the dirt. That was more dangerous before batting helmets became required. Newer traditions are rally caps and curtain calls.
Chatter among the infielders is part of the game, although it’s not like it was. Likewise there are superstitions, like no one mentioning a no-hitter. Crossed bats in the dugout are bad luck.
One tradition that persists is father-son bonding through baseball. For me, that means taking my grandsons to games, too. As soon as we walk in, we see the hot dog and peanut vendors that have always been there in the stands.
The National Anthem before the game, ceremonial opening pitch (which began in 1910 with President William Howard Taft), keeping a scorecard, batboys and the seventh-inning stretch are traditions that have endured. Old-timers like me like the old traditions. You don’t realize that some of these rituals have endured for 100 years.
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